0 Indiana

 Okay, first and foremost I had an absolute blast =] 

Now, I'll tell you about my trip to Indiana =]

Mom saw me off at the greyhound station

This is inside the Louisville bus station

This is outside the Louisville bus station

This is another bus parked near my bus.. I took this picture out the window, the other passengers thought I was surely a crazy person. 

Baking commenced immediately upon arrival =] these babies are called >Kiss Pies< and you can follow the link to find out more on them

This is Tugs McGraw, Angie's 20yr old recently-deaf jack russel 

These are >Tiny Pumpkin Pies< 

This is outside the bazaar where we sold our baked goods

The tiny pies and kiss pies were made to be sold at a bazaar, here they are on display, we made apple, peach and of course pumpkin

They were below the cookies and between the angel food cake and  Angie's homemade caramel corn

This is our booth, there was a bunch of stuff

See the blender? We also made pumpkin smoothies =] they were much better than they sound

Our sign

The kiss pies were bagged up over in that tray

Then we got in some barn time. This is Bogie, he's 20yrs old, I got him for Christmas when he was 6 and I was 8. He has been living with Angie since right around my junior/senior year of high school

An Indiana sunrise

Bogie again =]

Gary and I took Ziggy up to Purdue get his eye checked out (it was really only about a 20min drive)

It actually looks much better here 

He certainly got checked out, the blonde in the white coat is the vet teacher who specializes in large animal ophthalmology 

This is a crowd of vet and vet tech students gathered around Ziggy

We drove around Purdue a little bit, this is part of their agriculture department

They have cool sculptures outside the veterinary department

neat right?

This was a cool building on campus, I think its the student union

This is a statue of a horse made out of driftwood.. only it's made out of bronze.. I had to go up to it and touch it, I tapped my ring on it and sure enough, it's metal. 

Here is his info, he stands outside the arts building

This is Angie's fetal horse. 

One of her mares died a few years ago while she was <100 days pregnant so Angie took out the fetus and preserved it

Indiana sunset =]

The mighty Wabash

The Indianapolis Greyhound station

And here we are pulling out of Indi, past the Lucas Oil Stadium (across the street from Greyhound). Yes, there was internet on the bus, yay WiFi! Yes, I still managed to take every bit of a full week to get this together and get it posted. If you want to know more about Angie and what they do at the Sliding E, you can check her out in action >HERE< and if you just want another picture of how great my trip was... Here:

Enjoy =]

0 9-11

Today marks 10 years. Ten years ago today was Tuesday. A perfectly normal Tuesday, just like any other. I was in seventh grade, I went to North Port High School, we didn't have the middle school built yet. My grandma was scheduled to come home from the nursing home that day, she had been in a car accident and was there for care while she got better and healed her broken bones.

 I got to school as usual, in a perfectly ordinary way, it was 7am. As I walked through the crowded balcony to get to my math class I overheard a boy behind me say "the twin towers are going down today", I had no idea what that meant but I had a flashback to a TV show I had watched as a child that mentioned them, the show was hosted by a Popsicle stick named Stick Stickly. Stick Stickly was looking for a long lost twin brother and decided to look at the Twin Towers, and that was really all I knew about them. That, and that they had something to do with stocks, and were in New York City where my uncle lives. I thought about what had just happened for a moment and considered asking my teacher what it meant when stocks went down but the thought was lost in the bustle of the morning.

 I was sitting in class when, after the first plane had hit, the announcement was made for all teachers to turn their TVs to the news channel, we didn't have one in Mr. Brislin's math room so we all shuffled next door to Mrs. Sepeare's english class. We sat on the floor, horrified faces all around the room as we watched the obscene events played out on the TV.

 Just after 9am we watched the second plane hit, the scene then changed from what looked like a horrible accident to the biggest attack on our nation since Pearl Harbor in 1941. They played and replayed the images as the newscasters' voices droned on in the background, just as panicked, horrified and confused as the rest of the nation.

 A little after 9:30 a third plane crashed into the Pentagon. A call came, I was told to gather my things and go down to the front office, my dad was there to pick me up. I felt awful, sick to my stomach yet at the same time nothing more than going through the motions, I hurried down the hall wondering what news I would receive when I got to the office, was my uncle okay? I was scared. Daddy told me that he hadn't heard anything and that we were going home. We later found out that my uncle hadn't even known the terrible events had taken place. 

We listened to the radio as they detailed the events of the morning, they went on to say that a fourth plane had been hijacked and we listened as they told of the Pennsylvania field crash. We got home and turned on the TV there, watching as they replayed the horrors of the morning and talked about what was being done, and what was to be done about it. Two-Thousand, nine-hundred ninety-six people died that day. 

The hijackers learned how to fly at the Venice airport, as a kid I lived right up the road from there, I had ridden past it in the car hundreds of times. One of my best friends, Jenna, lived next door to them, her brother met them, he said they were nice. 

As I sit here typing this 10yrs later, remembering and re-living that day, I can't help wondering how it is that there are people out there, Americans (or so they claim), who insist on not supporting our troops. Those troops out there are my friends and their siblings, my classmates, people I grew up with. They're out there doing their jobs to make sure all of us here at home can continue living our lives as we do, without fear of re-living that Tuesday morning in a much more real sense. To them I say Thank You. America is a free country, serving in the armed forces is a choice, my friends didn't get drafted, my classmates weren't government regulated into service, they chose. It is because of their choice that it remains a choice. 

For those who consider themselves 'Americans' yet don't feel the need to support those who keep us free, get out. If you feel that the job they are doing is inferior, get out. If you feel it is unnecessary, click on the links I've posted in this page, if that doesn't change your mind, get out. There are planes leaving this country every day. Planes, just like the ones the terrorists used as weapons against us ten years ago. 

I'm sure countless others have stories similar to mine, but I felt the need to share. 

0 Happy Birthday Sam!

Okay so this is a little out of character but I wanted to tell you about my birthday =] Wednesday (June 1st) was my birthday. I had school, which is fine because I generally enjoy school. It started like any other day, okay maybe not, I opened up my laptop to a plethora of "Happy Birthday" wall posts on Facebook (Thanks guys!) I then proceeded to dig up a pencil skirt from the deepest darkest reaches of my black hole closet and find an appropriately matching shirt. I kept my make-up simple, eyeliner/mascara/chapstick, and went on to school after receiving birthday wishes from the family. Once at school I straightened my unruly mop hair and sat at my station awaiting my first client of the day. One of the teachers came by shortly and asked if I wanted a cut/color, sure, why not. My teacher points to a man about 65yrs old standing a few feet off talking to one of the other girls and informed me that he was my cut/color. I looked at him, then back at the teacher.. 'Are you sure? Are you.. for real? Like.. seriously?' I was assured that this was for real. I took my client back to my station and began consulting with him about his color and was then informed by the client that he was a drag queen. Yes. I did a quick body survey to make sure my jaw was not on the floor and made a mental note to keep my mouth shut. 'Oh really? How neat..' I responded carefully, continuing to apply the golden blonde hair color to the man's thinning, white/grey hair. He then proceeded to tell me stories of the war and when Candice -- you guys remember Candice from Hershey right? here --> 

Check her out on YouTube sometime. Anyway when she got to school and saw my client she pulls me aside and tells me a story about how this guy had gotten banned from the McDonalds in Walmart for flashing people.. Again I found myself collecting my jaw from the floor, 'Are you for real?' yes. I returned to my client, pokerface fully intact and he then told us both about how he had been banned from McDonalds.. I'm pretty sure it was simply coincidental timing.. He also told us about his drag queen performances and asked us about professional make-up application costs and such... I washed the color out after it had processed and started cutting his hair when he started telling us about some charity event he wanted to host and asking us how he could get Beyonce to show up and perform at this event. I was thoroughly lost. I got through the haircut and got a teacher to come grade it, my client then started telling the teacher about how he was going to have 20K people show up and listen to Beyonce for violence awareness. He was very nice the whole time and before he left he invited both of us to his birthday party in August or September and told us all the details about that... A little later Candice and I decided that I required some RED lipstick, and non-flat-ironed hair so we both donned some lipstick and threw some curls in each other's hair, Candice discovered a new finger waving technique involving a flat iron and we busted out a camera =]

We decided we needed to look like pin ups =]

And another for good measure

Did you notice the haircut? Yes that is Candice's handiwork also, she's pretty awesome, heres what it looks like straightened 

I Love it, its asymmetrical, long on my left and short on my right, but anyway back to my birthday.. Candice and Brittany and a couple other girls went out to pick up lunch, I stayed behind, when they got back Candice surprised me with a cake and they all sang and we had a mini party in the break room before returning to the floor to play with the curling and flat irons some more. Then it was time to meet the family for dinner, I don't have any pictures from that though so I'll have to just tell you it was my parents, my great aunt and uncle and another uncle. I'll also add that none of them have cool websites or youTube channels or anything for me to link for you. But dinner was good and overall it was a fun day =] and yes I pretty much just wanted to tell you about my interesting client and the fun pinup adventure. 

2 Hershey FPE 2011 =]

This is not about baking. This is about my life outside the kitchen *gasp!* yes, I have a life outside the kitchen. I did make cupcakes for this trip, but I did not photograph the process because I did not intend to blog them. The fact that it was also 1:30am may possibly be a contributing factor. Saturday 5/14/2011 we left for Hershey, PA for the Empire Future Pro Expo. It was an incredible weekend though somewhat exhausting. I have to say it's starting to wear on me now that I'm home and pinned down on the bed by my lead weight little dog. For event pictures see my Facebook album. If for some reason that link is a dud be it security or otherwise please let me know and I'll resolve the issue as soon as possible. When we first got there we were immediately given a Hershey bar. Yes free! But thats only the beginning of the freebie parade that was this past weekend. Lets just start here:

This box has a selection of Wella color in various blonde shades as well as developer and a bunch of other stuff. FREE

This is a box of "trial size" Nioxin products that are actually about the size of my face wash bottle. FREE

This box has Sebastian (full size) shampoo and conditioner as well as a shine spray and t-shirt. FREE

Full size big sexy spray and play, quite possibly the best most amazing hairspray ever (opinion). FREE

Hank was un-enthused. 

ISO full size curl styling product. FREE

Sample of Goldwell warm red shampoo

Sample of Goldwell warm blonde shampoo

Clic comb. FREE

Clic apron (sorry the mirror is really dirty.. that or its the camera lens) FREE

Samples of Goldwell's rich repair, color care and volume shampoo/conditioner

Samples of Sebastian shampoo/conditioner

Then we got to the hotel. A quick phone call to the front desk courtesy of Candice(for more on Candice >CLICK<):

produced not only a bunch of extra pillows and more towels than we could ever need but also these:

Toiletries courtesy of Hershey Lodge (not sure you can read them but they're cocoa flavored.. er scented)

The following morning we found ourselves wandering the trade show floor. It's like a career/business fair on steroids.. because literally every booth applies to you, and you're not just there for the free pens..

which there was clearly not a shortage of. 

The sexy hair booth was giving away not only powder play but also

Root pump, which is quite possibly my favorite and most used styling product when I'm behind the chair. Oh wait.. 

Yes. This amazing mirrored star key chain also came from the lovely people at sexy hair. 

The people at sport clips had these out on their table, I thought they were pens.. they are in fact lint rollers. Yes lint rollers. 

Master clips was passing out goody bags containing my absolute favorite type of clips

as well as hand mirrors. 

The folks at smart style were providing combs and nail files

Empire was also passing out nail files, and they had chapstick.

The people at the Holiday hair booth had complete manicure sets to give out

Matrix was supplying de-angling combs

The lovely people at American Make-up had excellent chapstick

There were of course more shampoo/conditioner samples scattered throughout the expo.

But I did actually pay for a few things while I was there

I got an eyeshadow brush for $4

An aluminum spray bottle for $3.50

A set of shears and razor complete with case, and another picture for good measure

The shears were free with the Dream Shears membership which was $30 and the razor was an extra $15. I also paid 50c each for the rubber finger sqooshies in the shears, the razor came with one. 

Oh, do those sound like amazing deals, Hank? I thought so too =]

Great, amazing weekend, wonderful classes excellent deals and new friends. I may blog the actual experience some other time but it is currently past my bedtime. 

=]